Orange rebrands with global ad campaign

Mobile phone operator Orange is to launch its biggest global TV campaign, thought to be worth as much as £90m, to introduce its new brand slogan: "I am".

Kicking off on TV in the UK from Saturday, the campaign is backed by nearly double the advertising spend of the company's last international campaign three years ago.

The concept of the advertisements, "Together we can do more", is to show people as the sum of their relationships and how Orange facilitates connections between people.

Orange's first TV ad will feature on the general concept of "I am" by showing a family tree of relationships . A second ad will focus on one as-yet-unnamed person.

The third will promote Orange bringing RockCorps - a festival where people can only attend if they do four hours voluntary work - to the UK.

And a fourth ad will continue to plug Orange's product-led deals, using different animals, although the marketing will reflect the new "I am" positioning.

The campaign, developed by ad agency Fallon, will also include a more brand-led advertising approach to Orange's business-to-business advertising.

The press ads will use "testimonials" from individuals - including Rob Law, the founder of Trunki, the ride-on suitcase for kids; and Rose Tremain, the winner of the Orange prize for fiction - under the "I am" theme.

The concept of "I am" will be reflected in everything from call centre training to personal statements on the business cards of company executives.

"This is not just a campaign, it is a system," said Jonathan Morley, the vice-president global brand at Orange. "It will inform everything we do and refocus and refresh the brand."

In the UK, Orange will be committing a record £30m advertising budget to the campaign and it is understood up to be spending nearly £100m globally.

"This is not just a fresh coat of paint on an old building," said Justin Billingsley, the brand director at Orange.

Billingsley added that, by introducing a long-term strategy, the company hoped to be able to "pull back" on traditional media spend.

"We won't be going to market with a 'new' Orange every three months," he said.

He added that purely basing advertising communications on a product or price-led strategy was a "very assailable position".

"We have been the most loved brand in the UK and we can be that again quite easily," he said. "We are in the relationships business not the phone business. We want to express everything we do through the relationships we fuel."

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